1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a needle bar driving mechanism of a sewing machine, more particularly to a clutch device used to couple/decouple a reciprocating force of a drive member to/from a needle bar.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional sewing machine generally includes a driving source disposed for actuating a driving shaft to permit vertical reciprocation of a needle bar between upper and lower positions, and a cloth feeding unit disposed for feeding a work cloth in a feeding direction normal to the vertical reciprocation so as to perform a sewing operation. It is necessary for a sewing machine to perform an intermittent sewing operation to meet different sewing requirement or to produce a variety of sewing patterns. In this case, the needle bar should stop its vertical reciprocation while continuing on performing the cloth feeding process.